2 Jul
2003
2 Jul
'03
4:56 p.m.
On Wed, Jul 02, 2003 at 05:59:39PM +0100, Daniel James wrote:
The industry has deliberately confused the two -
comparing p2p users
with shoplifters, for example. If someone gets busted for
shoplifting, it's not because of copyright infringement - it's
because of theft of physical property, or atoms.
Agreed. My favorite analogy is this:
Suppose that a thief breaks into my home and steals one CD.
Since Radiohead sparked this discussion, let's say it's my Radiohead
"The Bends" CD which I happen to have in front of me at the moment,
and which was released by Capitol, and which I purchased at retail
price.
Does Capitol have a right to prosecute the thief?
Does Radiohead have a right to prosecute the thief?
Just suppose you hear a song on the radio - are you
stealing it, if
you later choose not to by the CD? I bet there are lots of people
listening to the radio right now, who have no intention of buying the
music they are hearing. It's absurd to imagine that you could extract
payment from each and every listener in the analogue domain,
hmm. Actually, commercial radio attempts to do this, in a funny way,
through the licensing fees that are paid to BMI, ASCAP et al.
so why
should the labels expect to do this in the digital one? Because
they've been sold DRM snake oil, I expect.
We're basically revisiting the radio wars, which produced the
license fee business model for radio. There will be floundering
until somebody comes up with a new business model that the record companies
can live with (or until they go extinct, I suppose).
Personally I think that copy-protected media is doomed to fail.
--
Paul Winkler
http://www.slinkp.com
Look! Up in the sky! It's THE CHAIR!
(random hero from isometric.spaceninja.com)